In the past few decades, the availability and use of electronic computing devices, such as desktop computers, laptop computers, handheld computer systems, tablet computer systems, and cellular phones have grown tremendously, which provide users with a variety of new and interactive applications, business utilities, communication abilities, and entertainment possibilities.
One such communication ability is electronic messaging, such as text-based, user-to-user messages. Electronic messaging has grown to include a number of different forms, including, but not limited to, short message service (SMS), multimedia messaging service (MMS), electronic mail (e-mail), social media posts and direct messages, and enterprise software messages. Electronic messaging has proliferated to such a degree that it has become the primary mode of communication for many people.
While electronic messaging can be a particularly efficient mode of communication for a variety of reasons—instant delivery, limitless distance connectivity, recorded history of the communication—electronic messaging does not benefit from the advantages of in-person communication and telecommunication. For example, when communicating via telecommunication, a person can adjust, alter, or augment the content of their message to an intended recipient through tone, volume, intonation, and cadence. When communicating in-person, or face-to-face, a person can further enhance or enrich their spoken words with eye contact and shift of focus, facial expressions, hand gestures, body language, and the like. In electronic messaging, users lack these critically important signals, clues, and cues, making it difficult for people to convey the subtler aspects of communication and deeper intent. As a result, issues of meaning, substance, and sentiment are often lost or confused in electronic messages, which can, and very often does, result in harmful or damaging misunderstandings. Miscommunications can be particularly damaging in interpersonal and business relationships.
Another unintended effect of our overreliance on electronic communication is the impairment of emotional and mental health. In a recent article published in the American Journal of Psychiatry, Dr. Jerald Block wrote “technology addiction is now so common that it merits inclusion in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, the profession's primary resource to categorize and diagnose mental illnesses.” He went on to further state that the disorder leads to anger and depression when the tech isn't available, as well as lying, social isolation and fatigue. Our devices and experiences from said devices (receiving likes, comments and shares on social media) are in essence a drug dealer and drugs, respectively: Having the capability of doling out the same kind of dopamine hit as a tiny bump of cocaine. In effect, creating the typical addiction/dependency vicious cycle and all of the attendant consequences.
According to psychotherapist, Nancy Colier, author of “The Power of Life”, “We are spending far too much of our time doing things that don't really matter to us . . . [and become] disconnected from what really matters, from what makes us feel nourished and grounded as human beings.” Based on her findings, the average person checks their smartphones 150 times per day, or every six minutes. Furthermore, the average young adult sends on average 110 texts per day and 46% of respondents checked that their devices are something that they couldn't live without.
With this kind of digital ubiquity, it is becoming readily apparent that any solution to the problem involving curtailing or augmenting user behavior is not a realistic approach. Current approaches espoused by experts involve any one of, or combination of, the following: Downloading an app (Moment, Alter, etc.) that locks or limits phone usage upon reaching a pre-specified limit; disabling notifications from your phone settings; keeping the blue-hued light of your smartphone away from your place of rest; and even buying and carrying around a dummy phone.
There is a void for a solution that takes into account ubiquitous usage and provides delivery of pro-mental and emotional health content—personalized to the user, much like the way therapeutics have become narrowly tailored—to counter all of the digital-mediated ill effects plaguing our society. These effects will only logarithmically grow as we transition into the IoT era—where we will be exposed to thousands of internet-enabled objects (each capable of delivering contextualized analytics and provisioning) as part of our day-to-day living.